- - - - - Kappa - - - - -Kappa are supernatural creatures which live both on land and in water. They are as tall as a four or five year old child. They have a beak-like snout, and fins on their hands and feet. They also have a shell on their back, and a water-filled dish on their head. As long as the dish is full of water, kappa keep their supernatural powers. Kappa are known for dragging people into the water and pulling out their livers through their anuses.

Although kappa harm people sometimes, there are also many tales where they have helped people. They are very curious. They often appear in cartoons because of their lovable images.

Kappa love sumo wrestling and cucumbers. That is why cucumber sushi rolls are called "kappa maki". "Okappa" are bobbed hairstyles because they look like the kappa's hairstyles. Kappa are excellent swimmers.
There is a saying "Kappa no kawa nagare (a drowning kappa)" which means, even an expert can make mistakes sometimes.

During the mid-Edo period, there was a huge flooding of a river, due to long and strong rain. The villagers found a huge bull, half buried in the sand. When they tried to hit it with their axes, it started to bleed and the river became all red.

Why do Oni have horns ?
The explanation relates to the concept of kimon 鬼門 Oni gate - Demon Gate
The zodiac animals associated with this 北東の方角 Northeastern region are ushi-tora 丑寅 the bull and the tiger.
Oni are therefore usually depicted with bull horns and tiger fangs, wearing loincloths made of tiger skin.
(Tigers were not known in Japan.). tsuno 鬼の角 伝説 Oni Demon Legends about their horns .

- quote - Kimon, the "Demon Gate" 鬼門, Chinese geomancy (Ch: feng shui), a system for determining auspicious or inauspicious placements and orientations of cities, temples, houses, and graves. In Chinese thought, the northeast quarter is considered to be particularly inauspicious. The northeast direction is known as the "demon gate," which can be loosely translated as the place where "demons gather and enter." This belief was imported by the Japanese and is referred to as Kimon (literally "Demon Gate").Kimon generally means ominous direction, or taboo direction. In Japan, both the monkey and the fox are guardians against evil Kimon influences.source : Mark Schumacher

The outhouse toilet should never be placed in the Kimon direction of a house.
There are some trees that should never be planted in the Kimon direction of a house.
Others should be planted to bring good luck and avoid disaster.

A 汗穴 sweat pore is called Kimon. A Demon can use a 汗腺 sweat gland to invade a human body.

A new house should not face the northern Kimon direction.
Never dig a hole in the Kimon direction beside a house.
Planting a sarusuberi さるすべり crape myrtle tree in the Kimon direction protects the house from burglars and other disaster.

saru ishi, saru-ishi 猿石 "monkey stone"
At the estate of 足沢左十郎 Ashisawa Sajuro in Sannohe, the main building did not have a corner at the Kimon direction. Instead they had placed a stone, saru-ishi 猿石 of about 1 foot size. It was big enough for a monkes (saru - a pun with 去る to go away of bad luck). If a human touched this stone, he would be cursed, so people tried to avoid walking around this corner.

鬼門へ向かって飛んだ首 the head flying in the Kimon direction
Once upon a time
a 大工 carpenter had cut three pillars too short and did not know what to do about it. His clever wive suggested to use kushigata クシガタ（枡形）(masugata) square boxes. He did as suggested and all seemed well at first. But the carpenter was worried that his wife tell about his mistake and cut her head off to keep her silent.
The head took off and flew away in the Kimon direction in no time.

o-inari sama お稲荷様 Inari Fox Deity
A kitooshi 祈とう師 Kitoshi shaman is called ニチレンサマ Nichiren sama in the local dialect.
There was once a family with many ill people and a lot of bad luck. So they asked a Shaman for help. He told them that their local sanctuary for Inari was in the Kimon direction and they should relocate it to the inui 戌亥 north-west direction.
They did it and since then all went well.

ike no kimon 池の鬼門 Kimon of the Dragon Pond 龍が池
In the Dragon Pond lived daija 大蛇 a huge serpent. It had moved here after 為朝 Tametomo drove her away from 黒髪山 Kurokamisan.
Tametomo shot an arrow from this lake into the Kimon direction and it landed at the village 古野村 Konomura. There it stuck in the ground, became a bamboo grove and is still to be seen. . Minamoto no Tametomo 源為朝 (1139 – 1170) .

大工の女房 the wife of a carpenter
The story is similar to the one above from Tsukui.
But the wife now came back every night via the Kimon direction and appeared in the carpenter's dream to scare him. So he shot an arrow in the Kimon direction.
The 角材 squared timbers he cut after that all looked a bit like his wife.

kimon-sumi no nagaya 鬼門隅の長屋 long house at the Kimon corner
The estate of the Lord of Bizen (in Edo) seemed bewitched during the time he was living there. Fire pillars were seen in the garden, rain dripped into the kitchen and sometimes the whole house rumbled and shook in strange ways. The local people rejoiced when the Lord had to move out for his yearly stay in Edo.
And every day they held special fire rituals at the long house at the Kimon corner, often calling priests to perform the purifying rituals.

Once upon a time
a 匠 carpenter had cut one pillar too short and did not know what to do about it. His clever wive suggested what do to about it. He did as suggested and all seemed well at first. But the carpenter was worried that his wife tell about his mistake and cut her head off to keep her silent.
The head took off and flew away in the Kimon direction in no time.
Later he made offerings in the Kimon direction to appease her soul.

The home in the estate of the venerable Honda Tadakatsu 本多忠勝 (1548 – 1610) had a fire on the first day of the New Year.
The mansion had been built with the Kimon taboos in mind. Just before the fire started, the pine decoration at the front gate showed a broken branch and three broken bamboo sticks.
That was really strange.

tamashi no yobimodoshi 魂のヨビモドシ calling back the soul
Once a man built his 便所 outhouse toilet in the Kimon dirextion, but he was cursed and died soon afterward.
But his voice came at night from the roof, asking to call him back. A carpenter came and dug under the outhouse and found the bones of a dead person. The family buried the bones properly. And the man came back to life.

The Tanzawa Mountains (丹沢山地 Tanzawa-sanchi) are a mountain range in the Kantō region, in Japan.
It covers the northwestern part of Kanagawa Prefecture and touches the prefectural borders of Shizuoka Prefecture to the west and the Yamanashi Prefecture to the north.

This pass used to be called gakidoo 餓鬼道 the Road of the Hungry Ghosts.
In former times, the warlords 武田信玄 Takeda Shingen and 北条氏康 Hojo Ujiyasu used to fight for this pass. Many of their soldiers did not get enough food and staved on the road.
Their hungry souls now haunt the place.
Even in our times, people sometimes come and make food offerings in remembrance of the old days.

yabitsu 矢櫃 refers to the boxes and containers they used to keep the arrows.
The soldiers carried rather large quivers with arrows to last for a long war.

Kawatengu are close to the Kappa water goblins and thus very special.
At lake Tanzawako is a stone memorial of such a Kawa Tenu. When the region came under water during the construction of the dam, the stone was removed and preserved.
神奈川県山北町 Kanagaea, Yamakita

The first religious mountaineers in the Nara period used to climb in the Tanzawa mountains.
They prayed to Fudo Myo-O for safety and gave his name to one of the peaks.
This statue is still close to the peak.

The Mt. Onidake Volcanic group on the south coast of Fukue Island was formed by a muzzle volcano erupting 50 thousand years ago on top of a shield volcano that had erupted five million years ago. This group is made up of the mountains Onidake, Hinotake, Shirodake, Minodake, and Usudake.
The central mountain, Onidake, is an unusual mountain covered with mountain grass instead of trees because the top is burned once every three years. It is the main sightseeing area for Fukue since guests can see the main business area of the city, the surrounding islands, and Fukue port. - source : nagasaki-shizen.jp/en -

稲妻大蔵 Inazuma Taizo
Once upon a long time ago, in the village of 小栗村 Ogurimura in 諌早 Isahaya (長崎県 Nagasaki) there lived a farmer couple who did not have children.
They went to mount 八天嶽 Hattendake to pray. And then a Tengu came at night . . . well well, the woman got pregnant and bore a strong son.
The boy named Taizo became a strong Sumo wrestler. The Tengu trained him the best he could. Taizo won all the bouts in his village.
Taizo eventually went to Edo and nobody could defeat him. Taizo almost won against the strongest Sumo wrestler in Edo, 鬼ヶ岳 Onigadake, but Onigadake had asked him to let him win, so Taizo lost this one bout (and thus his Tengu power) and then all the other bouts after that and went home much ashamed.
Sometimes the villagers could hear a boulder (ゴットン石 Gotton Ishi) rumble at Mount Hattendake, where Taizo was practicing Sumo with al his former might. He could lift the boulder and carry it to the summit in no time.

There are various legends along the Koshu Kaido.
Even Momotaro, the Peach Boy, was here!
This story is basically fun with the pun words.桃太郎伝説もある甲州街道

From the mountain in the North of the road, called 百蔵山 Momokurayama (momo 百 is a pun with momo 桃, the peach) the peach came rolling down the river. It was picked up at 鶴島 Tsurushima (Tsurukawa) in 上野原 Uenohara. From this peach Momotaro was born. When he grew up, he got his helpers, the dog from 犬目 Inume, the 雉 pheasant (bird) from 鳥沢 Torizawa and the monkey from 猿橋 Saruhashi.

They went to Mount 九鬼山 Kukiyama (Mountain of the nine demons) in 大月南方 Otsuki-South
and to Mount 岩殿山 Iwatonosan, Iwadonosan in 大月北方 Otsuki-North to drive away the demons.
One of the demons was wounded and bleeding, so now at the shrine 子神神社 Nenokami Jinja there can be found red soil, remains of the demon's blood.

Another legend tells of the nine Demons having a quarrel among themselves and drove out some Aka-Oni 赤鬼 Red Demons.
They fled and begun to live on 岩殿山 Mount Iwatonosan, 634 m.
Again they disturbed and pestered the farmers and eventually Momotaro came to get them. He killed them all and their blood tainted the earth around all red.
Their tears became the river 浅利川 Asarigawa, which eventually flows into the river 桂川 Katsuragawa.

- quote - Misaka Tooge 御坂峠 Misaka Toge Pass
is one of the great view spot of Mt.Fuji in Yamanashi Prefecture. It is 1310m high. There is great tea house called Tengachaya (天下茶屋) where you can eat great Hoto and drink green tea. Matsutake is also one of the famous menu in this tea house. There are couple of hiking courses reached the spot for view of Mt. Fuji. - source : mustlovejapan.com... -

Mount Onigadake has a rock on its top which looks like the tsuno 角 horn of an Oni.
In former times two wicked Oni used to live on this mountain.
The mountain priest 役行者 En no Gyoja banned these two with a special paralyzing spell, 不動金縛り Fudo no Kanashibari. They could not move any more and eventually became aware of their bad deeds.
The demons changed their ways and became famous disciples of En no Gyoja:. Zenki 前鬼 and his wife Goki 後鬼 .

The legends about En no Gyoja and the two demons, Zenki and Goki are told in many mountain regions of Japan.

At the graveyard, a bluish fire-light was seen every night. The villagers were afraid, thinking it was the soul of a villager and did not even dare to pass the road during daytime.
玉吉 Tamakichi wanted to see it for himself and went out one evening, carrying 地神の魂の扇 a hand fan with the soul of the Jigami in one hand. When he reached the graveyard, he could see the bluish light. While fanning with his hand fan he went closer. The ground of the grave was still fresh so Tamakich started to dig, found the coffin bound with a cord and pulled it up.
But it was not a coffin but a hookei 包茎 (the dictionary says: a phallus with phimosis).